Night
by aquajogger
Summary: I prayed to the Moon, I prayed to the Stars, I prayed to the Dark. I prayed to the Night. ...And let me pray again.3POV ficlet for Valentine's Day. Just a little odd thing I came up with... Not really angst, but...


Disclaimer: This is just an exercise at trying to get into the character's minds, as this is something I feel I need to work on. This doesn't mean that I claim to own them. Sheesh.

Warning: POV switching(You should be able to figure out who's saying what.), semi spoilers for those of you who haven't been keeping up with the english releases.

Setting: Kainaldia, Book 16.

:n:

:I prayed to the Moon to keep you safe:

The lush forest grass is dead beneath my feet.

My hand tightens around your small one, all too fragile in my callused grasp.

Well. Semi-callused. Elves don't mar easily, and these patches of roughened skin are the only signs of years of training.

Those years didn't come in much handy, did they?

I sigh with guilt, my outburst of air disturbing the all-too-quiet forest. Nothing living thrives here.

Kainaldia's Black Forest is home to the dead and to the damned.

A glance down at your small form as you walk docilely next to me, normally clear eyes blank, and I quicken my pace. You speed up to match my strides, and I immediately slow down once more. It may not be you inhabiting that... Shell, but I still don't want to force you to strain.

It's the wash of guilt that wraps around me, forcing my footsteps to walk along the thin line of mock calm, preventing me from breaking into a furious sprint.

It seemed so long since we had spoken.

I promised you, swore to protect you. Not out loud, perhaps, and not in front of you. You possessed a buried rebellious streak that normally prevented my admittance of such a thing.

But you knew.

I worried about you. You teased that fact out of me.

And you hadn't minded. You normally didn't. Every so often, however, after a feeling of weakness or fault settled upon you, a deep wish of total independence would burn. At these times I would find you aggravating.

And what I wouldn't give to see you like that.

Anything besides this emptiness that so envelops you now.

It is cold.

The black moon rises early in this forsaken country.

My mind notes this fact, taking in the darkened light that is beginning to fall around us, wondering if the shine off this pale moon would qualify as ultraviolet. Wondering if it is indeed the same heavenly body as the one visible from home.

It mirrors your glazed stare.

Another futile glance down at you, and I feel my lips moving, words tugging to escape.

"Oh, Princess..."

An endearment, one never tried out before, but your ears are deaf.

The forest continues to deepen.

What were you doing, I wonder. How did you let this happen to you? And then, with another guilt-laced twinge, To me?

Beating myself up about this will solve nothing. Yet I can't help but think, feeling distinctly like Rath, that you had promised. You said you wouldn't get yourself caught.

It hurts.

It's a slow, dull ache that is beginning to seep into my still-shocked body.

I need to fix this.

Another sigh, and the millionth poorly worded prayer.

I look at you once again, imagine the vacant expression a tantalizing smile of laughter, no strings attached.

:Now yet me pray again.:

:I prayed to the Stars to hold you tight:

Jeez.

I shift uncomfortably, the rocky ground below uneven.

Mist, fog, whatever, swirls around us, obscuring my view of the others and the landscape. So of course I feel slightly vulnerable.

Jeez.

I mean, sitting practically on Nadil's doorstep, unable to see five feet from our meager cooking fire, and already having been attacked multiple times since our arrival a mere day earlier? This can't be the smartest thing I've ever done, and I've done plenty of stupid things.

You remember, I find my mind whispering to an unnamed person, we did all sorts of foolish things.

But we always did get out unharmed.

Heh. Luck? Sure.

Prodding the dying embers with a stick, my eyes take in the bones left from dinner, lying in plain view. Hopefully we've still got a bit of luck left, it looks like we'll all be needing it.

My attention wandering, I find myself wondering where the others all are. The dull gray embers, alight with drops of liquid fire, provide a backdrop for my musings. My prodding slows.

So you're with Rune.

That was an unexpected result and, quite frankly, I feel bad for the guy.

First he discovers his girlfriend's in danger, then you team up with him? That's a double whammy.

A jab of the twig, one of the coals splits, and red-white sparks fly through the air, mimicking the pattern of stars. One of them falls the farthest out of the ashes, sizzling into the dusty ground at my feet.

An earthen-bound shooting star.

I let a soft chuckle escape me at that, at that irony.

With this dense fog packed around us, it's impossible to see the night sky.

Not that I'd want to. Sheesh, what's up with it? All red and black and purple... Too few stars, and the ones that do manage to penetrate that thick voggy cloud cover pulsate a dull blood red.

Danger.

Giving the now steadily smoldering fire a final jab, I lean against the craggy boulders serving as my backrest.

I bet Rune's already managed to get a headache. I bet that you and Tintlett ganged up on him. I bet we'll still be wandering around here, searching like little mice for the way in by the time you catch up to us.

I bet we'll all make it back to Draqueen alive.

The grin slides from my face: I can feel it, and the chill that settles into it's vacated position.

Yeah, I bet.

The fire sparks again, and I wonder what we've gotten ourselves into.

:Now let me pray again:

:I prayed to the Dark to set you free:

Cesia.

The name tugs at my very being, prodding me onwards. Onwards into... Where? Nadil's castle lies ahead, and here we are: Stuck, with no clue of how to get inside.

The most irrational of thoughts plague me.

She, you, Promised.

That you would stay with me, protect me, take away the pain, so that I wouldn't have to hurt anymore. So that I wouldn't have to hide behind this wind-wary smile.

My shadow stretches across the distance, flickering with the fire.

The dark of night envelopes our small camp, casting a dim light over us and our meager possessions. Bringing into sharp relief the castle over the misty sea, too close for comfort, yet too far for hope.

I sigh.

And I remember once again, that night, too good to be true.

You Promised.

And then you left.

Like him, and like everyone else before him.

The edges of my vision begin to blur, a now familiar pain settling in. A scalding drop of self-loathing falls into the pit of my stomach at this reminder of my hellish sides and ultimate fragility.

I felt clean with you.

But Nadil has stolen you away, the smell of his taint lies thickly upon the air, though I doubt the others have noticed it. It takes a demon to sense this evil.

Another twist of my gut, another pain-inducing shadow.

You Promised...

But you...

Captured... Or gone willingly?

I'm almost afraid to find out.

Pleading with the forever dimming light, praying for it to be the prior, I wait.

The camp fire crackles with an oddly mechanical glow, and I watch Thats absentmindedly prod at it, sending the embers into bursts of orange flame.

That won't do much.

This dark is palpable.

You left me.

These dismal thoughts strike up again, and I physically shake my head, trying desperately to convince myself that it isn't so. The tug within my chest grows stronger, a mixture of love and scalding fear.

Betrayer, Betrayed, Betrayal.

From my current position I can't see which is which.

I wish my mind into blankness, into emptiness. Into blackness. Anything but this futile tug, this flashing of hope and of deep, soul-drenching horror.

I fear the hatred, the loss... The rejection. This admission bites deep, threatening to swallow me up in self pity.

Always rejected. By those killed, by those who knew, who took me in, who betrayed. By myself.

By you...

The flare finally, against Thats' efforts, flickers out, giving off one last spark of light before smoldering into irreversible gray ash. Smoke clouds above our heads.

I can't see a thing.

I didn't want to loose him.

And I don't want to loose you.

It's dark.

:...And let me pray again:

:n:

Mmkay, I think I need to explain things a bit...

This story came to me in parts. I came up with the prayer first, a couple months ago. (I think of weird things late at night... :shifty eyes, sweatdrop:) Then, after rereading the later DK books a couple times, and attempting(and failing horribly) to do a Thats POV one-shot for Christmas, this idea was born:D Actually, it was born a little after that, when I got bored and realized I had nothing I wanted to work on. :sweatdrop: Originally a three-chapter deal, I decided to combine them all once I realized the chapters would be obscenely short(even for me). Hence, this fic. Ta-daa!

So... I'm sure I got -something- OOC. Feel like correcting me? Please?

...No, I'm serious.

I know that I got Rath wrong(Even though I completely rewrote his section a couple times and took notes on it and carried it around school with me... G'damn you, Rath. :shakes fist at Rath:), and it's really bugging me. I figure that since a lot(read: most) of you are Rath fangirls, you should be able to give me some pointers? ...This goes for the other two Knights, too, by the way.


End file.
